《局外人》

詹姆斯·斯邁思

The master of horror hits a home run1， with this mystery of a baseball youth team coach accused of murder. ?恐怖大師再度出手，大獲成功;棒球教練被控謀殺，迷霧重重。

Stephen King finds himself in a unique situation： every book he releases is charting， his backlist is selling enviable amounts and a devout fanbase want more of the stories he is famous for telling. So how does he surprise his readers and draw new ones in？ How does he， as the writer， surprise himself？

Over the past few years， King has experimented. There was a sequel to what is arguably his most famous novel， The Shining; 2013s Doctor Sleep eschewed the snowed-in torpor of the original in favour of a story that never took its foot off the pedal. He has written the Bill Hodges trilogy of crime novels—Mr Mercedes， Finders Keepers， End of Watch—in which he intended to shun the supernatural element （and stuck to this promise for nearly two of them）. And Sleeping Beauties， written with his son Owen， was a more literary endeavour than his books usually are.

From description alone， The Outsider sounds as though it could be King by numbers. When Terry Maitland—baseball youth coach， family man， all-round good guy—is accused of the horrific murder of a young boy， he is arrested and the town turns against him. （As seemingly every character says at one point： “He coached my son/grandson！”） The case is driven by Detective Ralph Anderson， a man who liked Terry and cant believe that he would commit such an atrocity， but who also knows that all the evidence points to him being guilty.

The story switches from Kings graceful head-hopping third-person narrative to a transcript of official statements from key personnel in the prosecutions case， a formal change that nods to the statements and newspaper extracts King used throughout his debut， Carrie.

A well-researched， finely tuned crime-cum-legal case novel forms a good chunk of the book， as Detective Anderson and the state prosecutor amass their evidence. They are then presented with a curveball： Terry doesnt just have an alibi， he has been caught on video at a talk by Harlan Coben in another town at the exact time the murder took place. Unnecessary cameo aside， its a genuinely intriguing mystery， one that uses many of the tropes of both so-called “grip-lit” thrillers2 and more conventional forensics-driven crime fiction.

Then， as so often in King novels， the rug is pulled out from beneath the readers feet： the airtight case remains airtight， but so too does the alibi， until Anderson， with the help of Holly Gibney， on loan from the Bill Hodges trilogy， starts to unpick Terrys story.

From that point on， the novel visits some very odd places—and I mean that as a compliment. The supernatural elements have more than a little in common with some of Kings most beloved creations， especially in the vague way he conveys what they actually are. He has always understood that the mystery—the question—is scarier than finding out the truth.

But even then， the titular Outsider is not the strongest presence of evil in this book. There is an intriguing political undercurrent throughout： from mentions of the Black Lives Matter movement to the shadowy presence of Donald Trump， evoked by a crowd wearing Make America Great Again hats and baying for Terrys blood. King also examines how society treats sex offenders. （As one of his constant readers， I find that the thought of Trump inhabiting the same fictional universe as Greg Stillson， The Dead Zones horrifying presidential candidate， is not a comforting one.）

You could see The Outsider as Kings take on fake news， moving it from the political realm to something more personal. Lies being sold as truth： what form could that concept take？

Thats not to say the whole novel works. It takes a couple of hundred pages for the weirdness to get started， and the sense of the uncanny pervading the entire novel means that the more horrifying elements fail to surprise when they eventually arrive. But The Outsider gives King fans exactly what they want at the same time as cramming in new ideas， proving the least surprising thing of all： that his novels are as strong as they ever were.

斯蒂芬·金的情況與眾不同：他發布的每一本書都在暢銷榜上赫赫有名，就連他在出版社的存書銷售也是異常火爆，令人艷羨。那些令他聲名鵲起的故事為他吸引了一大批忠實粉絲，急不可耐地等他后續更新。那么他是如何驚艷讀者、吸粉無數的呢？作為作者，他又是如何做到靈感不斷的呢？

過去幾年，金不斷嘗試。《閃靈》可以稱得上他最知名的作品。2013年他又推出了續集《睡夢醫生》，為了讓故事跌宕起伏、不斷推進，金刻意回避了前者在大雪冰封下死寂沉沉的基調。金還完成了比爾·霍奇斯犯罪小說三部曲——《梅賽德斯先生》《撿到歸我》與《警戒解除》，在這個系列中他有意避開超自然元素（其中差不多有兩部做到了這一點）。他又與兒子歐文合著了《睡美人》，較之他以往的作品，這次更傾向于一種文學性嘗試。

單從內容描述來看，《局外人》這幾字一聽就感覺是金的作品。男主特里·梅特蘭，青少年棒球隊教練，已婚顧家，一個完美好男人，卻卷入了一場恐怖的兇殺案，涉嫌殺害一個小男孩而被起訴﹑逮捕，隨后整個小鎮都開始敵對他。（似乎每個角色都在某個場合義憤填膺：“這個殺人犯還當過我兒子/孫子的教練！”）這個案子由警探拉爾夫·安德森負責，他曾對特里很是欣賞，不相信特里會犯下如此殘暴的罪行，但同時他也明白，當下所有的證據都指向特里有罪。

這個故事中，金一改以往從容又燒腦的第三人稱敘事模式，轉而對這個控訴案件中關鍵部門的官方聲明進行轉述。這種形式上的改變與他在處女作《魔女嘉莉》中所運用的摘錄聲明和新聞的方式相同。

小說中大部分都是對這個犯罪與違法案件細致入微的描述，因為安德森警探和州檢察官搜集了大量證據。接著他們就遇到了棘手難題：特里不只是擁有不在場證明那么簡單，就在案發時他還被哈倫·科本拍到出現在另一個鎮的會議上。除開不必要的配角，這才是真正有趣的懸疑故事！當中不僅多次運用了所謂的“扣心式”懸疑小說元素，還融入了更傳統的以法醫推動情節發展的犯罪小說成分。

然后就是金式小說中的常見套路了，讓讀者突然失去線索，案件依然無懈可擊，不在場證明同樣毫無漏洞。此時霍利·吉布尼出現了，一個從比爾·霍奇斯犯罪小說三部曲中借用的角色。在她的幫助下安德森才開始對特里的案件抽絲剝繭，逐漸靠近真相。

從那刻起，小說呈現了許多非常詭異的場景——我這么說其實是一種贊譽。這些超自然元素與出現在金最受歡迎的作品中的超自然元素極為相似，尤其是他在揭示這些超自然元素的真相時所用的朦朧手法。他深知懸疑，也就是困擾讀者的疑惑，要比最后的真相恐怖得多。

但即便如此，書名上的“局外人”卻并非整本書中最邪惡的存在。從多次提及“黑人的命也是命”運動到隱約出現的唐納德·特朗普的身影，一股奇異的政治暗流始終貫穿在故事之中。當一群戴著印有“讓美國再次偉大”字樣帽子的人怒吼著要特里償命時，這股暗流便噴涌而出。金的小說里也審視了社會是如何對待性犯罪者的。（作為金長期的忠實讀者，我發現活在這個相同虛幻世界里的特朗普，也就是《死亡地帶》中恐怖的總統候選人格雷格·斯蒂爾森，在對待性犯罪者方面的理念并沒有令人感到欣慰。）

你可以把《局外人》視為金對虛假新聞的看法，只不過把它從政治領域挪到了更為私人的空間。謊言被當作真相出售：這樣的觀念又能采用何種形式來表達呢？

這并不是說整部小說就毫無瑕疵。小說中有兩百多頁都是在渲染詭異離奇的氛圍以推動故事的開展，這種彌漫在整部小說中的離奇感卻意味著，當更恐怖的元素最終出現時讀者其實很難被驚艷到。不過《局外人》在注入新觀念的同時也的確滿足了廣大粉絲的需要，果然不出所料：那便是一如既往的大師水準。